Police Deception Tactics and Public Consent in the United States and Great Britain

Abstract

Various deception tactics have become commonplace in police work, such as "sting operations" for snaring burglars, alluding to non-existent witnesses during interrogations, and "abscam" type operations. Courts have accepted such practices in the belief that (1) deception is a preferred substitute for coercion and (2) deception can be limited to the investigation stage without extending to the courtroom phase of a case. A survey of both American and British police, police superiors and civilians inquired about the acceptability of deception tactics. Only minor differences were found between these different groups in terms of their approval of deception tactics. All groups showed a generally high level of approval. But there were differences in terms of the kinds of situations in which deception was regarded as acceptable. The consistent finding was that there was greater approval of a deception tactic if the tactic was believed to be in common use. However, widespread use of deception tactics seems to have injured the credibility of police testimony in court cases. It is suggested that police agencies attempt to formulate specific guidelines regarding the use of deception tactics.